PayTV providers are expected to continue to pull in the lion’s share of consumer spending through the start of the next decade, despite the rise of over-the-top video services, a new forecast from Strategy Analytics indicates.
The firm says legacy providers like AT&T DirecTV, Comcast, and Dish will still pull in the majority of video and TV revenue through 2022, hanging on more than 80 percent of the total subscription video market by that time.
OTT players like Netflix and Amazon Prime gained steam to grab 8 percent of the market in 2016, but growth isn’t happening as fast as some think, Strategy Analytics notes. By 2022, emerging players like these will only account for 18 percent of the market, and will stay below the 20 percent mark in the following years, the firm calculates.
“Beware those headlines suggesting Netflix is now bigger than the cable industry,” Strategy Analytics analyst David Mercer writes in a blog post. “The OTT players have had a remarkable impact on the video landscape and will continue to shake things up, but there is a long way to go before the winners can be announced. Video providers will improve their chances of succeeding in this complex new environment if they focus on identifying consumer needs and desired experiences, evaluating their existing products and service offers, and monitoring their market performance.
The firm indicates U.S. subscription video and TV service revenues will peak in 2019 at $130.3 billion before declining to $125.7 billion by 2022.